Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to ensure that UK exports of plastic waste to OECD countries within the EU are not re-exported to non-OECD countries within the EU single market.
The UN Basel Convention and an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Council Decision (C(2001)107 FINAL) provide a system of international rules on waste shipments. These control regimes have been fully implemented in EU law through the EU Waste Shipment Regulations (Regulation (EC) 1013/2006). The EU’s control system for intra-EU shipments of waste is a shared regime that all EU member states must abide by. It does not draw a distinction between member states which are adherents to OECD Decision and member states which are not. Recent amendments made to the annexes of the Basel Convention will increase controls on the shipment of plastic waste. These will come into force globally on 1 January 2021.